This invention relates to a pizza baking screen or baking pan receiving and holding assembly for use with standard pizza baking ovens having one or more baking sections elevated above ground level by a support structure. The assembly of this invention is positioned beneath the lowermost pizza baking section at a location for receiving and holding hot pizza baking screens or pans after baked pizzas are removed from the ovens.
Commercial establishments known commonly as pizzerias bake pizzas in standard pizza ovens which have one or more baking sections having an open space between the lowermost baking sections and the floor level. Pizzas to be baked are placed on baking screens or into baking pans and put into the ovens until completely baked. Long stemmed paddles are used to insert and remove the pizzas in their baking screens or pans into and from the ovens. The baked pizzas are removed from the screens or pans and deposited onto serving trays or into take out boxes. The hot screens or pans are then deposited either into open cardboard boxes disposed beneath the baking sections of the ovens or thrown on the floor. Oftentimes the hot screens or pans miss their boxes and end up somewhere beneath the ovens. Typically there is no order to the storage of the hot screens and pans. Whenever screens or pans are needed from the supply of the hot screens and pans someone is required to retrieve them from the cardboard boxes or from the floor beneath the ovens. This retrieval process is time consuming and sometimes hazardous, especially when the screens or pans are well beneath the ovens and out of ready reach. The disorderly storage of the hot screens and pans is not only unsightly but may result in screens and pans getting under the feet of workers where they are compelled to use valuable time to move the screens and pans out of interference with their movement. More significantly the disordered screens and pans may cause workers to trip and fall resulting in injuries.
No known system or assembly has been heretofore offered to receive and store hot pizza baking screens and pans. Consequently pizzerias have continued to exist with the disorderly and oftentimes hazardous method of strewing hot pizza baking screens and pans beneath the pizza ovens.
This invention overcomes the heretofore problems of storing hot pizza baking screens and pans by providing a compact and efficiently formed pizza screen or pan receiving and holding assembly which is simply positioned in the open space beneath the lowermost baking section of most standard pizza baking ovens. Pizza screen receiving boxes of different sizes for receiving small, medium, and large pizza screens are supported for easy deposit of the hot screens after the baked pizzas are removed onto trays or take out containers. Pizza pans may be deposited on a main frame used to support another frame for receiving the pizza screen boxes. The entire assembly is simply and effectively positioned with respect to the pizza oven. The pizza screen box supporting frame may be removable from the main frame and secured to the support structure of the pizza oven whereby the pizza screen receiving boxes are disposed for receiving the hot pizza baking screens. The overall structure of the assembly of this invention is simple in its construction, easy to handle, efficient in its use, and relatively inexpensive to produce. In addition to providing for orderly storage and retrieval of hot pizza screens and pans this invention allows for effective cooling of the screens and pans.